Well here we are... In Indy ...
Yesterday we addressed a problem noticed in our run at the Denver Nationals, in that the car had a wobble/shake at high speeds.. So, since we fully expect to go very fast, we needed to get the front end aligned....And, the right wheel castor was significantly off... so after making a mod to the front end to allow the alignment, the car should be good now.
Today, after making some final wiring changes and tying in our new window circuit, (which unfortunately meant removing most of the carpet, finishing the wiring changes..... and then putting the carpet back took about 4 hours, several special tools, some common ones, and carpet tape.... today was in the 90's and felt like 100% humidity... ) and then sorting out the tools and supplies we needed for Indy, we brought the trailer around and first had to clean it out...But once we got the trash and miscellaneous stuff from Denver out, we got it loaded up... And I am one tired puppy...
Oh, I forgot to mention that we also picked up a golf cart. It cost almost $700 to rent one in Denver for a week. So rather than keep paying those kinds of rates, I decided we needed to buy one. It is Black, with blue trim. And it is now nicely adorned with Mopar stickers. We picked up a couple of ramps at Tractor Supply Company. We are using Keith Lynch's truck to tow the trailer and it is a big Diesel Dodge which sits pretty high so we were getting ready to push the cart up the ramps, and I thought Keith was pushing when I just drove it up the ramps and right onto the bed of the truck. No pushing required. Pretty nice power for the little cart, and we got a really good deal on it... So we will be styling around the pits in our new cart already named the Drooze Mobile, in white letters across the back of the cart.
But back to Indy.. We got in line behind about 100 other rigs, and have to wait until tomorrow to allowed to enter the track and get into the pits. We just got word that they will start letting people in to the pits at around 8:00 am, so we think it will be arounf 10:00 when we get in... And we are still pretty close to the front of the line, considering how many cars will coming. So, it is all good.
Then we went to our Hotel, and and after freshening up a bit made a short jaunt to a Steak and Shake, (we actually tried a couple other places, but they closed at 9:00 pm on Sundays) but after eating, I am now chilling out watching a bit of TV, and about to hit the sack.
We will get in tomorrow which is Monday and that is all that happens tomorrow. We do need to hook up with a couple of other folks, and we need some C11 fuel. We Tech in on Tuesday, run qualifying runs on Wednesday so that is when the fun begins... I will report our performance here on Wednesday.. But I will also try to keep you posted throughout the week..
David
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
New engine for Indy
As Chris often said, "so much to do, so little time to do it all..."
The new engine is ready to go into the car today. This engine is an upgrade to the car for several reasons which I won't go into at this time. But it does have a different cam, and a few other secret squirrel tricks that will remain a secret until we find out how it runs.
Having a complete second engine offers us a lot more flexibility in the case of catastophic failure, or some other unforseen happenstance.. If something bad happens, we can pop the whole engine out and drop a complete replacement in place within a few hours.
Making some changes at the front of the engine necessitated the replacement of our custom water pump and alternator bracket. So we installed a Meziere electric water pump. I went online to Summit Racing who said they would ship in September, so I went to Jegs who seems to stock more than Summit Racing these days, and I ordered it for next day delivery. It arrived and sure was pretty. But nobody told me when I ordered it, that the back plate didnt come with it. You need to order that separately. So after spending another $300, the backing plate was on the way.
Meziere apparently doesn't include the backing plate that is quite specific to the engine, in the kit that is that is identified as fitting a 5.7/6.1 hemi, in spite of that "kit" not having any specific part that fits a 5.7/6.1 hemi engine. So you have to order it separately. I am not sure, but it may just be that way to look lower priced.... but that is only until you determine that you do need both parts totaling nearly a thousand dollars.
And we still need to finish a few wiring changes we are making after our window rewire and a few other little tricks, including a new much larger tach
I will start posting some additional pictures soon, reflecting the window switch locations, and more details about that change.
In the meantime, just keep moving forward. You have already seen everything behind you, and if it was all that great, you wouldn't have left it back there. So keep moving forward.
David
The New Hemi Guy
The new engine is ready to go into the car today. This engine is an upgrade to the car for several reasons which I won't go into at this time. But it does have a different cam, and a few other secret squirrel tricks that will remain a secret until we find out how it runs.
Having a complete second engine offers us a lot more flexibility in the case of catastophic failure, or some other unforseen happenstance.. If something bad happens, we can pop the whole engine out and drop a complete replacement in place within a few hours.
Making some changes at the front of the engine necessitated the replacement of our custom water pump and alternator bracket. So we installed a Meziere electric water pump. I went online to Summit Racing who said they would ship in September, so I went to Jegs who seems to stock more than Summit Racing these days, and I ordered it for next day delivery. It arrived and sure was pretty. But nobody told me when I ordered it, that the back plate didnt come with it. You need to order that separately. So after spending another $300, the backing plate was on the way.
Meziere apparently doesn't include the backing plate that is quite specific to the engine, in the kit that is that is identified as fitting a 5.7/6.1 hemi, in spite of that "kit" not having any specific part that fits a 5.7/6.1 hemi engine. So you have to order it separately. I am not sure, but it may just be that way to look lower priced.... but that is only until you determine that you do need both parts totaling nearly a thousand dollars.
And we still need to finish a few wiring changes we are making after our window rewire and a few other little tricks, including a new much larger tach
I will start posting some additional pictures soon, reflecting the window switch locations, and more details about that change.
In the meantime, just keep moving forward. You have already seen everything behind you, and if it was all that great, you wouldn't have left it back there. So keep moving forward.
David
The New Hemi Guy
Sunday, August 22, 2010
As most of probably already know, Chris "Drooze" Wertman, my son, only child, and best friend recently passed away as the result of smoke inhalation during a house fire. He is missed by his friends and family which included his Mother Linda Snowball, Step Father Francis, sons David, and Max, daughter Isabella, and me, his father.
The blog will go on... only because Chris would have wanted it to go on and to help other Dodge challenger Drag Pak owners.....
The car is currently under major rework. We are now more than ever dedicated to the Dream the Chris and I shared that this car, Drag Pak #24 would be a record holder, and we think we are now very close.
For those of you who are tired of stuggling with windows, the polycarbonate door windows, know this, there are options...
Here are the issues as I see them after at least 5 track outings;
1. First the intelligent door modules have to "relearn" how to put the window down on door open, up on door close, etc, etc., after every time you totally turn of power to them. This is especially awkward, and can get a bit anxious in the staging lanes....
2. The polycarbonate windows are not curved like the glass. So when a window is being put "up", somebody needs to push the poly window in at the top to get it into the rubber molding. This means you need someone along in the staging lanes, and right up to burnout, simply to push the window in at the top...
These two issues, are quite simply inconvenient. There are many better things to be thinking about in the staging lanes.
So here is one path that you can consider to address both issues.
1. Remove connections to the smart door modules. Or don't wire them in, in the first place. We had them working, saw the problems, and removed them. We added two switches into the stock switch positions on the drivers door. These are "reversing toggle switches", DPDT On - Off - On . The switch has three pairs of connecting lugs. The power and ground go to two center lugs, this leaves the two out lugs on each end open. You connect one side of teh switch to the two pins in the motor connector that are heaviest - at the back of the plug. You connect the two wires other side of the switch to opposite wire on the motor pins. One way, the switch will put hte window up, and one way it will go down. The switch, quite simply, having +12v, and ground to teh center lugs, reverses the +12v, and ground so that one way you send the +12v to "pin 1", and ground to pin 2, and pushed the other way, sends +12v to pin 2, and ground to pin 1.
It is really simpler than it looks, and you can even wire in the passenger door switch with a third DPDT reversing switch.
If you have questions about this, just email me, david@newhemiracing.com
Now, for the issue of having to push in the polycarbonate windows at the top..... replace them with glass. Simple enough, isn't it? Why wouldn't you just replace them with glass? You might think they look cool. If so, and you don't hate pushing them in at teh top eaqch the window goes up, so be it... You might think the glass is too expensive. I got both windows at slighly less than $100 per window. You might think that the polcarbonate is so much lighter than the glass, that you can't afford the extra weight. I didn't get a chance to weigh them, but my sense of the relative weight, is that the glass weighs 3-5 pounds more each. It might be less, or even more, but frankly, the weight is an acceptable loss due to the gained benefit of having the glass window close without a push from the outside.
Credits: I would never have thought of replacing the cool polycarbonate windows, if not for Doug Duel, whose Drag Pak clone has glass windows (even though Doug has the poly carbonates ones too...) and said when he weighed the poly windows and glass windows, there wasnt that much differences, and the glass windows work better. Thanks Doug.
Well, that is all for today, but keep tuned in, there is more to come.
David
The New Hemi Guy
The blog will go on... only because Chris would have wanted it to go on and to help other Dodge challenger Drag Pak owners.....
The car is currently under major rework. We are now more than ever dedicated to the Dream the Chris and I shared that this car, Drag Pak #24 would be a record holder, and we think we are now very close.
For those of you who are tired of stuggling with windows, the polycarbonate door windows, know this, there are options...
Here are the issues as I see them after at least 5 track outings;
1. First the intelligent door modules have to "relearn" how to put the window down on door open, up on door close, etc, etc., after every time you totally turn of power to them. This is especially awkward, and can get a bit anxious in the staging lanes....
2. The polycarbonate windows are not curved like the glass. So when a window is being put "up", somebody needs to push the poly window in at the top to get it into the rubber molding. This means you need someone along in the staging lanes, and right up to burnout, simply to push the window in at the top...
These two issues, are quite simply inconvenient. There are many better things to be thinking about in the staging lanes.
So here is one path that you can consider to address both issues.
1. Remove connections to the smart door modules. Or don't wire them in, in the first place. We had them working, saw the problems, and removed them. We added two switches into the stock switch positions on the drivers door. These are "reversing toggle switches", DPDT On - Off - On . The switch has three pairs of connecting lugs. The power and ground go to two center lugs, this leaves the two out lugs on each end open. You connect one side of teh switch to the two pins in the motor connector that are heaviest - at the back of the plug. You connect the two wires other side of the switch to opposite wire on the motor pins. One way, the switch will put hte window up, and one way it will go down. The switch, quite simply, having +12v, and ground to teh center lugs, reverses the +12v, and ground so that one way you send the +12v to "pin 1", and ground to pin 2, and pushed the other way, sends +12v to pin 2, and ground to pin 1.
It is really simpler than it looks, and you can even wire in the passenger door switch with a third DPDT reversing switch.
If you have questions about this, just email me, david@newhemiracing.com
Now, for the issue of having to push in the polycarbonate windows at the top..... replace them with glass. Simple enough, isn't it? Why wouldn't you just replace them with glass? You might think they look cool. If so, and you don't hate pushing them in at teh top eaqch the window goes up, so be it... You might think the glass is too expensive. I got both windows at slighly less than $100 per window. You might think that the polcarbonate is so much lighter than the glass, that you can't afford the extra weight. I didn't get a chance to weigh them, but my sense of the relative weight, is that the glass weighs 3-5 pounds more each. It might be less, or even more, but frankly, the weight is an acceptable loss due to the gained benefit of having the glass window close without a push from the outside.
Credits: I would never have thought of replacing the cool polycarbonate windows, if not for Doug Duel, whose Drag Pak clone has glass windows (even though Doug has the poly carbonates ones too...) and said when he weighed the poly windows and glass windows, there wasnt that much differences, and the glass windows work better. Thanks Doug.
Well, that is all for today, but keep tuned in, there is more to come.
David
The New Hemi Guy
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